Hondo

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Summary: A great book and a great movie
Review: Hello, folks, I'm James Drury. I used to play the Virginian on television. I say this only to add a little authority to this review. If you haven't read Louis L'Amour, and particularly this book, you ought to build up the fire, sit down on your couch, and kick back. You are in for a treat. John Wayne brought Hondo to life, but he couldn't have done it without this book to build from. Wayne said this was his favorite Western novel, and in the world of Westerns we all trust the Duke! Make sure you read this book if you get the chance, and if you haven't read L'Amour and you take a liking to him you might also want to try Elmore Leonard, Elmer Kelton, Mike Blakely or Kirby Jonas.

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Summary: "Hondo" is a tale of gun fights, friendship and Indians.
Review: Hondo is the best story I ever read. It is a tale that tells about a expereinced frontier man who mets a woman living on a ranch in the territory of a murderoouis Indian Chief, but when the chiief comes to the woman house, the woman had a son, she attempted to reason with him, an he agrees, to leave her alone.This is a exciting story written by Louis L'amour. It isa stories of murder. This book is not for a faint-hearted reader.

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Summary: Hondo keeps the reader interested till the end.
Review: Hondo is the typical western that has become extremely popular. Louis Lamour is famous for western books and this is one of his most famous. Hondo has been made into a movie that starred John Wayne. The movie is similar to the book except Lamour is able to bring out the landscape and characters in a way that film cannot reveal. Lamour makes the reader notice the size and beauty of the landscape and at the same time how barren and lonely it can be. The book is about Hondo Lane, a heroic cowboy. He is best described as a middle grounder. He is the type of guy that everyone respects, Indian and cavalry. The way he can communicate with both sides while still being loyal to the cavalry is one of the most admirable qualities about Hondo. He has an ability to tell both sides how it is and still get along with them. The story starts by Hondo losing his horse to Indians and coming to a farm ran by a woman and her young son. The process of losing his horse makes it evident early that his instincts and reactions are better than a normal mans. Hondo stays at the farm for a night as the guest of Angie Lowe and her son. Angie's husband had left but Angie said he would be back. Hondo departed the next day leaving Angie and her son at the will of Indians that were on the warpath. They stayed in Hondo's mind though and he returned to them after reporting to the cavalry of the restless Indians. He is not a trooper but is hired as a scout for the cavalry. When he returns Angie has had an encounter with the Indians and was only spared because of her son's bravery. Hondo stays with them and rescues them from the Indians that become savage after their chief is killed. Hondo Lane is like many western heroes in the classic western. He is stronger and quicker than everyone else is, but most importantly he is smarter. He knows how to survive in the violent west. He shows some of this knowledge with Angie's son and it allows the reader to get a feel of the true Hondo Lane. Angie is the woman that captures Hondo's heart. Hondo does not fall all over her but is very quiet about his feelings and it draws Angie even more to him. She is awed by the way he handles himself and everyone around him. She falls in love with the man that is not big into talking but action. Hondo is an interesting book and it keeps the reader involved. It is the traditional western with the heroic cowboy. Hondo Lane is the stereotypical male hero in many classic westerns. He is strong, instinctive, independent, and has a great understanding of people and land. Angie is the stereotypical woman that is independent but needs a man to be complete. It is a classical western that keeps the tradition of gunfights and a great cowboy hero.

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Summary: The greatest Western of all time!
Review: Hondo: only Louis L'Amour could have written it; and only the Duke could have played him. The greatest Western writer and the greatest Western star, combine for the greatest Western ever.

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Summary: A great western novel by a classic author
Review: I don't read westerns very much, usually I find that they have the same basic plot, no matter who the author is. However, I have always heard of Louis L'Amour because my brother used to read his novels. When I heard that John Wayne did a movie based on one of L'Amour's characters in a novel he had written, well first I saw the movie, which I liked, then I read the novel, which I really enjoyed.

Hondo is a very entertaining novel. It has vivid descriptions of the harsh desert life where Hondo lives. It describes the tough life of a woman who is surviving on a desert ranch along with her young son. The novel also tells about the true desert warriors the Apache Indians. Mix all of these together with a very tough yet tender cowboy such as Hondo and you get a great novel as a result.

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Summary: all in a days read
Review: i picked this book up out of shear curiosity. Seeing about a billion Louis L'Amour books throughout the course of my life on store bookshelves i decided to break down and read his debut novel hondo. It is very simple yet entertaining. I would recommend this book for people who just want to spend an evening reading a novel that wont require a lot of serious thought or time. This is not to say that it was a poorly written novel, but its not exactly War and Peace either. The storyline is pretty straight forward, it tells of a mans adventures (Hondo) over a short period of time in the Arizona territory during the 1800s. The story moves quite quickly, and divulging any of the plot in this review might ruin the book. Bottom line: if youre curious dive in, but dont expect to be blown away.

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Summary: OH WELL
Review: It is perhaps one of those fortunate turns of kismet that Bantam's Louis L'Amour's Legacy Editions series should be launched at roughly the same time as the premiere of "Deadwood," HBO's new original western series. It is doubtful that it was planned that way, given that such matters are usually scheduled a year or so in advance. However, the interest in "Deadwood," a graphic and gritty presentation that is not your daddy's "Bonanza," will hopefully rekindle interest in the Western genre in general and L'Amour in particular.

While L'Amour's name is known and revered to fans of the Western genre, he was in the somewhat unenviable position of having his work better known than he was to the general public. This was due primarily to the adaptation of his fine novels to epic films, such as How The West Was Won, The Shadow Riders and, of course, Hondo.

L'Amour's HONDO is inexorably intertwined with John Wayne, who played the lead role of Hondo Lane in the 1953 film. It is hard to believe that the book of the same name was L'Amour's first full-length novel. L'Amour had confined himself to the magazine market up until then, honing his craft by refusing to sacrifice quality at the expense of quantity, writing for reliable publications such as Argosy (recently and brilliantly revived) and creating word paintings on a huge, adventurous canvas. The quality of HONDO demonstrates this for all time. Though over fifty years has passed since its publication, L'Amour's prose sparkles and shines with a brilliance that transcends time, place and fashion.

Hondo is a mystery man, a loner, whose background is only roughly sketched throughout the novel in a passage here, a sentence there. He is a dispatch rider for General Crook, traveling through an Arizona desert that he knows as well as his own name. In his lifetime, he has lived among the Apache and the white man, usually uncomfortably. Hondo is a legend among both, a roughhewed individual who will live in peace if he is permitted but who will kill without hesitation if he is attacked or disturbed. As the novel begins the Apache are leaving the reservation, beginning a rebellion that will ultimately lead to their inevitable destruction.

Hondo is on his way back to General Crook to bring him word of the uprising when he stumbles across a small ranch in the desert worked and defended by Angie Lowe and Johnny, her young son. Angie Lowe has been deserted by her husband but is not about to desert the land and small ranch that her father left to her. Lowe and Hondo find themselves attracted to each other following their brief meeting, and after Hondo completes his mission he is compelled to return to Lowe in an attempt to persuade her to leave the ranch in the face of the deadly Apache uprising.

Vittorio, the chief of the Apaches, is also aware of Lowe, and respects her courage and that of Johnny. He desires to bring them into his tribe of Apache warriors. While he respects Hondo as well, there are those in his tribe who do not. One is Silva, who is motivated by hatred rather than nobility, and who has set his sight upon Lowe and her son in order to wreak a terrible vengeance. L'Amour painstakingly but quickly draws these disparate people and elements together, and if one anticipates the conclusion it is only because it is a classic one that L'Amour had a hand in creating.

The ending of HONDO, in its way, is perfect: one is left wanting more, to learn what happened to Hondo Lane and to Angie Lowe, and yet what is revealed is enough. And while HONDO is firmly and finely steeped in the Western genre, its subject matter, and L'Amour's resounding skill as a wordsmith, transcends classification. HONDO is ultimately a necessity for any bookshelf, published in the edition that it has earned and deserves.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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Summary: OH WELL
Review: Looie has a great following. So does fast food. Look in any fast food place and it's packed, So we know why the truck drivers and landscapers and sanitary engineers are reputed to read Looie. But somebody should at least complain. Here is a master of false suspense, unsound motivation, stepping out of character, acts of God, and a need for copy editing (which he didn't allow after he becdame famous). Here in Hondo we find the first in the series of books in which his publisher invented "the man who walks the land he writes about." As someone or other asked, "Why didn't he 'ride' the land if he was such a hellacious Westerner?" It occurred to his publishers (and perhaps him) rather late that he should and we saw those hokey TV Commercials where his stand in furiously rode a horse down a hill at risk of life and limb for both him and the horse. Then they thundered dirctly into the screen like a 'silent movie' freight train, the rider dismounted in a huge cloud of dust so you couldn't see him, and we see Looie standing, arms resting on top rail of a corral wearing a hat right off the rack. (And probably Gucci loafers, but the camera carefully stayed away from that part of him - as the cameras should have with Jack Dempsey posing as a welder in WWI, wearing spit polished shoes - but Jack wasn't a big hokey faker - it was actually him in the ring).

So give us a break arreddy! In both the book and movie Hondo arrives somewhere in never never land after walking only fifty miles or so across the desert, packing his saddle. Ever pack a Western saddle? Even John Wayne who played the movie role couldn't have packed one a mile. C'mon. Give us a break. And after years of Looie PR hoke, we wonder why he didn't carry his dead horse to give it a ceremonial burial, as he carried his parched camel fifty miles to a waterhole in his bogus biographies, when he wasn't wrestling gorillas like Tarzan.

If yer not a Looie reader, don't start.

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Summary: Louis L'Amour's literary piece is full of non-stop action.
Review: Louis L'Amour is the author of Hondo, and exciting, action-packed western. Hondo is the cowboy of the story; fighting off Indians, killing betrayers, and rescuing Angie and her son Johnny. This story fits the sterotype of westerns with all the gunslinging and violence. Hondo, the character, is the typical cowboy. He never shows his feelings to others, is courageous, rugged, and appealing to the women. Angie, whom is a damsel in distress, depends on him to get her and her son out of the danger that surrounds them, and she trusts him. She is attracted to his exciting and dangerous life; the violence is what makes him so appealing to her. The violence in his life represents his masculinity as a cowboy. Killing Indians and surviving in the desert shows how much power and control he possessess, and the power he has makes him even more masculine in Angie's eyes, therefore increasing the attraction. This book is full of action and constant excitement, and it is simple to read. The positive side to reading this book is that it is entertaing to those people who like westerns. Hondo gives an adventuresome, interesting version of the stereotype of the "old west". The book seems to fly by as one is reading it. However, if a person does not enjoy action books, this may not be the correct choice for them.

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Summary: Based on a screenplay
Review: Louis L'amour wrote a short story that was made into the movie "Hondo". The movie was based on a screenplay ,not written by L'amour, that was quite a bit different from L'amour's short story, for instance the screen writer is the one who came up with Hondo Lane and the dog Sam. When L'amour wrote the novel Hondo he worked from the screenplay. According to Robert Weinberger's book "The Louis L'amour Companion" John Wayne told him he had never read the novel Hondo and didn't remember ever meeting L'amour, his endorsement was just for the screenplay. That being cleared up this is a pretty good western. There is a couple of laugh out loud parts in this novel. One is when one of the Apaches is telling his chief that Hondo knows their language and how much he had been insulted by Hondo in Apache. The other is when Sam his dog has been killed, to help get over it he is telling how ugly and mean the dog was he says he almost had to eat him up on the powder river once and he had

not looked forward to it or something to that effect, you have to read it to see the humor. Classic western.